Month: August 2014

I’ve never had a chance to watch FRIENDS back when it was still shown on tv because for one, we never had cable tv, plus I was too young to even get the jokes of twenty somethings. Fast forward to the second decade after it first came out, I’m having the time of my life watching reruns of the show. Call it the grand FRIENDS throwback!

photo links to the original site/owner

I actually find the timing very appropriate since I’m in my early twenties and I can never relate to it as much as I can right now dealing with quarter life crisis, job problems, love problems and all that drama. Thanks to ETC for giving a late bloomer like me a chance to relive one of the greatest shows of all time. It was actually how I got started on watching the show, by seeing reruns before lunch time everyday. When I finally got myself a copy of the show on DVD, it wasn’t but a mere, single season. I had to settle for it, even if it was the third season already or else I wouldn’t get a chance to see it, not unless I buy myself an original copy, which sadly I can’t afford. It’s not as if I had a choice, thinking how rare it is to find FRIENDS nowadays, even on sites that offered free streaming. It’s that rare!

I spent about 7 hours watching the whole third season and I can’t say that I did not enjoy because I was indeed having so much fun, but I found it a million times more meaningful, though terribly sad because I actually related to the whole Ross-Rachel, love-hate thing they had going. I honestly was a bit torn between laughing my a** off and having my heart broken into pieces. It was that relatable.

photo links to the original site/owner

photo links to the original site/owner

photo links to the original site/owner

On a lighter note, FRIENDS marks its 20th year this year and I didn’t realize it until now that I have written about it and remembered in one of their interviews that it first came out in 1994. I just had to watch all the interviews because it’s been a while since their last season aired and it always feels great to look back at the good, old days. Seeing how different life used to be back in the day, what could be more relaxing than that, complete with a huge bucket of timeless jokes? Here’s one that was done by Oprah herself. Just seeing her on that show is a nostalgic time travel in itself.

What was mostly surprising for me to see was how Matt LeBlanc was when not playing Joey. His character was very well played that I didn’t realize that he might be the very opposite of how he played Joey and true enough, he really was. I remember being a fan of his show Joey, even before I saw FRIENDS, which is odd, and he acted in the exact same way (Well he should, since it was a spin-off from FRIENDS), a very hyperactive, goofy Italian womanizer and frustrated actor. Seeing him in the interviews, it was a bit of a fresh air but it suddenly makes it even more heartbreaking to see him that way. No more of the goofy, hyperactive guy.

Here’s one memorable interview right after the last episode ever was aired. What I loved about it was when the “original pitch” that was written by the creators 10 years before, was first ever read to the cast, :

It’s about sex, love, relationship, careers, a time in your life when everything’s possible, which is really exciting and really scary. It’s about searching for love and commitment and security and the fear of love, commitment and security. It’s about friendship because when you’re young and single in the city, your friends are your family.

I thought that that was more touching than anyone can ever write about friends. It’s simple but it’s true, like how friendship should be.

P.S. I think the photo below was their final bow since apparently sitcoms used to have live audiences, hence the genuine audience reactions. I should really look for the video of their last episode since I cried like a baby when I saw That 70’s Show‘s final bow, to think I’ve only seen a season of it.

photo links back to the original site/owner

photo links to the original site/owner

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According to my ever dependable pc dictionary, MAGIC is defined as any art that invokes supernatural powers. It says that it’s also any illusory feat or it is considered magical by naive observers. According to Wikipedia, it can be classified into the paranormal, illusion or in fiction. Personally, I think that magic is a phenomena that’s very hard to explain (especially like what the dictionary says, by naive observers), therefore very hard to believe in, but once you see it, you’d either be moved by it, or be further skeptic about it.

I’d like to say that I want to believe in magic because it gives me an opportunity to escape my worries even just for a while. I’d also always be astounded by the supernatural or by illusions or by works of fiction that sometimes I find myself not wanting to fight the thought of it just for the fun of indulging in it. It feels good, actually, to sometimes be vulnerable to the unimaginable, to the unbelievable.

Speaking of the unbelievable, I’d been terribly hooked to this show that I only discovered a few weeks ago, Once Upon A Time. It was first shown in 2011 and I found out about it now, when I saw on hollywood life that they would be featuring Frozen soon in the coming season. Of course I only got interested because I saw the photos of the actresses who would bring to life Anna and Elsa and so after further research, I was convinced to watch it from the very beginning, yes, right when the narrator usually say, Once upon a time…..

Anna and Elsa (photo links back to the original site/owner)

So the fourth season is not going to be shown at least for a couple more weeks, so I have more time to finish the first three ones. Currently, I just started on the third season. Yep, I’m still at it. I found it very much highly engaging as compared to other tv shows that I recently discovered too. No offense meant, I do love the other ones, but not as much as I have come to love this.

I am not really going to talk about what’s it about or how the storyline goes, now that I’m on the third season, but I want to talk about how much it has given me that opportunity to believe in magic in this day and age. First of all, I find it magical to have found me at my lowest and darkest point because it gives me that certain hope and energy to find the good in everything despite what I’ve been going through. It sounds awfully a lot like a cliche, but that’s what this series is about: love, family, happy endings, good vs evil, magic that always comes with a price and always finding the good even in the most evil in all of the enchanted forest, the world where all the characters were originally from.

What I also love about this is that it gives another angle or story to the fairy tales and characters we thought we knew or how we always knew them. It’s really funny and creative how they were able to magically just bring about a whole new world with all of the familiar characters we grew up believing in. What’s even more amazing is that the creators were able to make up a way to kind of involve all of these characters in the wildest of stories and put them all in a tangled up web. It’s like one of those all-star cast movies that gave each of the characters the right amount of exposure and equal importance to the whole plot. It’s amazing, almost made me believe that the stories there were the real ones the Grimm brothers or the other authors actually wrote. Who would’ve thought that Belle can actually be friends with little red riding hood, who lives right across Jimini cricket, or that Aurora wakes up from her somber sleep only to have Prince Philip taken away from her and gets him back by joining forces with Mulan? Crazy right? No, that’s magic!

I could tell you how much more magic I find here by the minute and I couldn’t even assure you that I’ll finish in a day, but all I can say is that what these fictional characters and us, human beings have in common is the belief that the greatest magic of all can actually be summoned not by a spell, but by the heart, which is, yep you got that right, the big L-O-V-E.

I love how it centers on LOVE still. Love is very powerful, yet very magical that I couldn’t imagine what all of the fairy tales would have been without love, the goodness of love and being in love and loving even the most vile of all creatures. Isn’t it just magical how two people can end up together despite not having anything in common or despite their differences in status or beliefs or despite the absence of physical attraction? Don’t you find it magical to fall for someone who only used to be a stranger? So there, I do believe in magic because I believe in love, which again I say is the most powerful and the greatest magic of all.

Did I also say that two of the main actors who play lead roles, Snow White and Prince Charming actually fell for each other on set and recently got married and had their first born in freaking REAL LIFE?!?!!!? That I find really magical too. Seeing their onscreen chemistry, it’s no wonder they have something within them that’s more than just great acting. Plus they actually look good together too and I’m just happy for Ginnifer Goodwin to find her real life prince, Josh Dallas.

happy ending 🙂 or is it? (photo links back to the original site/owner)

Now that’s real magic! I just can’t get enough of it. I find it magical that magic uplifts my mood and makes me feel better any day. Now, I’m happy again! 🙂

I should also say that aside from good, the evil in this story/series have also got to be one of the best magical creatures and villains I have ever come to love, Regina, the evil queen and Rumplestiltskin. They have the most wretched and selfish of hearts, but surprisingly also the kindest and purest if I may say. Nothing touches my heart more than bad people giving in to their soft sides, again all thanks to magic! ❤

Plus, I also love the deep, dark magical feeling the musical scoring of the show evokes. Let me give you a sample, which is also my favorite, by the way… they play this whenever the evil queen needs a really good dramatic entrance….

Anyway, so much for the familiar characters, before I end this, I want to say something about my favorite character, Emma. Ring a bell? No it didn’t too, when I first started watching this. Apparently, she’s the long-lost daughter of Snow and Charming and 28 years later, she finds a way back to them through her own son. I told you the story is all jumbled up, but despite it, I find Emma, the savior, my favorite, because she is an embodiment of a strong and independent woman and I love it. She also looks a lot like Elisha Cuthbert, that girl, Jennifer Morrison, so that makes her really pretty too.

True enough, other people think they look alike too! (photo links back to the original site/owner)

I’m trying not to get into so much hurry finishing the third season because who knows how impatient I can get until they show the fourth one, but I couldn’t really say how much I owe this show the sanity I still have left in me as much as I owe FRIENDS, but I’m saving that for another entry. For now, I’d like to believe in magic and be able to pass this on to my future children and grandchildren, after all, it’s something worth living for, something good to escape to and something which lights up that pure unadulterated spark of innocence and optimism within us. Magic will be true for those who believe in it and even though it isn’t, somehow, it gives you hope that in all adversities and misfortunes, there is still power, great enough up there that is quite like magic. You just have to have faith. 🙂

(photo links back to the original site/owner)

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Recently, I took on another hobby and it wasn’t far from the other hobbies that I loved and still love. Though I know I won’t be as good at this as the others, I wanted to do it so bad still, because that’s just me, I’m a wannabe and an amateur on a lot of things.

Anyway, I feel pressured to make everything on my art journal look as creative and inspirational as possible. I wanted it to look as beautiful as those I’ve seen so far so I tried very hard to think of what to put in there.

Ironically, I found something random to write about, or rather draw about. As I was making room for my new books (see previous post), I came across the things B gave me that I’ve kept hidden behind my nursing books in one of my shelves. I kept the whole bouquet he gave me for Valentine’s last year, and so all of his love letters, the balloon that was a peace offering, the box of the bb cream he gave me for my birthday and a lot more. What I also found (which I obviously know was there all along, I just wasn’t able to take it out as often), was this rose I saved from the very first bouquet he gave me. I kept it pressed in my Microbiology book including the wrap that came with it.

When I saw it again, I knew it needed to be a part of my journal, after all, I’ve kept it in there too long. It does need a better place for storage.

So I was trying to figure out how to stick it in there, but I was worried it won’t stay intact in one piece if I literally stuck it in, so I had a better idea. I traced the flower on the journal and stored it back into the wrap and hid it, again. You see, this is very important to me, knowing how overly sentimental I am that I couldn’t see it fall off eventually, plus it could be risky to put it somewhere it could so easily be seen. Imagine what a turmoil that could cause.

So when I finally traced it, I colored it with watercolor pencils, and planned on dabbing water on it afterwards, but since it didn’t look that bad, I decided just to leave it like that. Although, I seriously need to work on visualizing the lighting on this one.

Then right before the end, I put in a few calligraphy and typography (sort of) and put in a piece of the wrapper too and some washi tapes..

I couldn’t really decided between leaving the drawing as it was or adding some stuff in, but I finally chose the latter and ta-da, it turned out quite well. Naaahhh, I was just trying to make myself feel better. It looked really pretty and simple without the text and the hideous red wrapper, but in a way, I felt that those were what gave it meaning. 🙂 So I convinced myself that it looks more special this way.

So there’s my second entry in my art journal. I’m hoping to fill it up with lovely sentimental stuff and lots of paint hopefully! I better get myself gesso from Deovir soon so I could get started on that.

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Earlier today, my friend, Jannina and I went to the Books For Less warehouse sale in Pasig. It is an annual book fair held along Mercedes avenue selling 2nd hand books for the whole month of August. In the past years, they used to sell books at discounted prices for up to 70% off, but lucky for us, this year, all books are on sale for P10 each (according to the lady who managed the place)!

Well isn’t that just plain heaven here on earth? From bestselling fiction novels to children’s books, hard bound books, paperbacks, textbooks, non-fiction books to magazines, all for P10. That is way, way cheaper than that famous drumstick ice cream that you can buy for double the price. The next time someone asks you how far your P20 can go, you already know what to say. 😉

taken from manilaonsale.com

taken from booksforless.ph

Bought a total of 20 books which I managed to conveniently stack into one of my ever dependable canvas totes! You can never go wrong with a bag as sturdy as that!Now I know what that empty top shelf is for!

I know it’s only the 15th, I still have half a month to turn the whole place upside down! Kidding aside, I know there are more treasures awaiting in that little warehouse and this isn’t the last time I’m visiting that magical place. 🙂

Happy kid 🙂 photo grabbed from Jan 🙂

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When I first created a blog, I think I was in grade school and I did it because my friends were doing it. It was a fad which I liked to be a part of. I also did it because I loved reading other people’s blogs and commenting on their issues and opinion and just dropping by to flood their tagboards. Yep, blogdrive probably was the only one that offered that feature and it was home to my first blog.

When I created that blog, it was also for the fact that I wanted a place online where I could rant about my life, talk about my crushes and the “silay moments” we had back then. I don’t know if people from co-ed schools or kids these days still call it that too, but yeah, back in the day, in my all-girls’ Catholic school, we call it silay. It’s Filipino for “catching a glimpse of”, or something like that. And it’s what we do back then to our crushes and yep, I repeat, I’m from an all-girls’ school.

We would all be excited during gatherings like first Friday Mass celebrations, or flag ceremonies, student council elections or during our school fairs because those were perfect opportunities for catching a glimpse of our crushes. Sometimes, we could also be stalking them, which only comes with great courage and crazy friends.

So most of the time, my entries would circle around our crushes if not on classmates I used to hate.

Come high school, I was surprised I still kept one, and another one and another one. I learned about other blog hosting sites and tried them all. I found my first ever blog idol, Bianca G and her then college adventures and I kept mine trying to save all the memories I had, good or bad. I think it was also the time I started trying to write in English, but I thought that I was trying too hard so I just maintained it in a Taglish format. I also visited strangers’ blogs and had them visit mine. It helped me gain anonymous friends whom shared their opinion and sympathy, which I welcomed wholeheartedly.

Then came college when I still had a few Taglish entries, but thinking that this could help me practice my writing, I started writing in English. Looking back (since I still have them here), I realized how much I’ve changed and how much I haven’t. I found things I have completely forgotten and things that still haunt me to this day.

So I realized, my purpose for keeping this blog is not to gain followers or readers, but to keep a journal where I can write the things I want to remember the most, or to have an escape from the real world. I also realized that I need this because it acts as my very own pensieve just like what Dumbledore kept in his office, to get all the excess thoughts and memories out of my head and into a written form which I can visit again whenever I want to. I love going back to the times I have written my entries every once in a while. It is like traveling back in time and remembering the sights, sounds and most importantly, the feeling. It truly is like a pensieve, isn’t it?

It is funny though that no matter how completely true and honest I am here, I never want anyone I know to find out about this blog, at least not those who would violently react to my opinion, issues and most importantly to my love story (which I do write about, a lot, no holds barred). This is my safe place and as ironic as it sounds, strangers are welcome here, but the people closest to me are not. Although somehow, I just wish that they’d find it and see how much I admire, respect and love them, which isn’t any less than I admire, respect and love another person in my life right now.

In line with this, I’ve been thinking of keeping another journal, but this time, a real one. I’d still find time pouring my heart out here, but I’d like to take things to the next level (though I don’t exactly know how that is a step higher than blogging). Somewhere I can be more creative and personal in and somewhere I can truly “write” on. I started drooling on this idea when I saw Chynna Ortaleza‘s mixed media journal on tv and began looking up art journals online.

Here are a few ones I loved:

These first two I reblogged on tumblr and when I found his/her flickr page, there were so much more art to drool on! So beautiful.

This next art journalist I also found on tumblr, but when I saw her photostream on flickr as well, I knew, she was someone I would follow online from now on. She is like what it says there, a real craft junkie!

I feel so pathetic not doing art journals early on in life. The next one is also a very creative art journalist named Tracy and her flickr page is a witness to that.

This last one is also an art journalist I only found out about now, and I’m glad that he/she has a wordpress account too. He/she is Casey Nelson and I’m really excited to learn a lot about art journaling from her/him.

I can’t wait to get started. I found lots of tumblr accounts on art journaling and like learning about the snail mail revolution, my mind is blown.

Writing is not as easy for me as for the real writers. I guess I found it easier to keep a blog than a journal because it’s easier to edit and re-edit your entries. Unlike in blogging, real writing would be awfully tragic once you find the grammatical errors after. So good luck to me! Here’s to another artsy and crafty adventure!!

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Nothing much to say about myself that I haven't already said in the ABOUT ME section. Currently in my late 20's, a Scorpio ♐ and my life staples are God, my family, friends, photography, mountaineering, love, laughter, hope, prayer and art.
You're welcome to read the rest of my misadventures on my personal blog and to see the world through my eyes in my photo blog. Links are posted below an odd GIF of me! :) Thanks for dropping by! Have a good one!